I went to the office on aging Care Pathways 12 week course. One class was a presentation by an elder lawyer about planning for medicaid and va benefits. I suggest you call your office on aging and ask for a referral like that. I met with a local.lawyer and she will.definite,y be an important member of my team when we get a little further on this journey. You are military and definitely need to look into the va benefits. A lawyer mit be able to get you qualified for some care and attendance benefits. You could pay one of your kids to help you care for your wife -yes even in the assisted living, or to provide care for you for that matter. Or outside care givers to sit with her while you go somewhere. You definitely need a specialist. And consult a specialist even if you believe you have too many assets to qualify for medicaid. You also want to get wills and durable powers of attorney and healthcare stuff done hopefully while she is still cmpetent to look someone in the eye and say, yes I trust my husband to manage these things for me and yes, I understand what these documents are. Sorry it took me so long to remember this.
It's time now. A person who has had cognitive decline may be unable to sign legal papers (depending on what they are), so it's important to get in while the person can still understand. (We went to an elder lawyer early on but it did not occur to me until later to transfer my husband's investment accounts to our joint names and it was touch and go when we had to get medallion signature guarantees at the bank.) Anyhow, you are both in assisted living, so you've already made some legal decisions. I would get going on this now.
Now. As mentioned, you want to get paperwork done while the spouse is competent to sign papers. For example, if you do not get DPOA now, you might end up having to pay $5,000 for guardianship/custoianship later when they are declared incompetent. Also, with the 5 year Medicaid look back there is stuff you need to do to protect your assets years before a NH might be needed (and you can't say now if NH will be necessary).
We have had a revocable living trust in my name for the past two years, but no inkling of my husband's diagnosis. Because he has always been covered on my teacher's insurance, I am having to navigate Social Security and Medicare for the first time. He is going to be 72, and I had an attorney check the trust. But, since the diagnosis (life is always before AD and after AD, isn't it?) I am planning to go see an elder attorney this week, as well as Social Security. I am a real glutton for punishment. My husband wants to come with me, and there are times he has valuable insights to add. Other times, he is "absent" while present. It is his choice, his life. He is coming with, as he has requested, to the attorney. And frankly, if he gets a little irritable, I figure, Social Security kind of deserves it...they haven't been the most helpful. We aren't rich, but we have a little nest egg to try to protect, and if we can't, I am going to burn, baby, burn.
I am confused - did he not take SS when he turned 66? Did you not take Medicare Part A and B when he turned 65? Or are you talking about Medicaid? That is when you have to preplan to protect assets.
I do hope when you go to the attorney he will tell you the trust will protect them.
At social security, unless you are his representative payee, he will have to be there. I wanted to do a simple address change for my husband but to do so I had to be his representative payee. So I took him in, he signed the papers even though he really did not know what it was only that it would make my life easier!
Yes, he signed up at 65, SS, but only Pt. A as he was on my insurance. Now that I am retiring, he is going to be on Medicare Pt B and a supplemental plan and needs Pt. B. Because I am a teacher, we pay into another funding stream and not SS. This entire thing is foreign to me. So, I have done this very "methodically", with the various agencies. Which means that by the end of each meeting, I need several drinks...But, the meeting with the elder attorney was grim. We have too much money. Not enough to be complacent, but enough that we will have to spend down a large chunk if he is every placed in a nursing home., and protecting assets is not easy, although it is doable. Social Security was paperwork, paperwork. I will be walking those papers from my employer back to the SS office. Luckily for me, this is a small town, and can be done in a day.